Factorio Forums

I don't know why I run into this problem every time I start oil. Light oil and petroleum pump fine, but after a few seconds, everything stop because heavy oil stops. It doesn't matter if I'm just cracking it or (in case of screenshot) turning it into lubricant. All light oil is cracking to petroleum Those lubricant tanks are 100% empty. What am I doing wrong?

cenroe wrote:All light oil is cracking to petroleum

Try giving your cracking plants some water.

I have been staring at this thing for two hours....

Try to delete all pipes with heavy oil and place it again.

Will do. The water addition fixed this issue, but I've had other similar problems I know were not caused by my ineptitude to connect my water to its source. Thanks for the solution on this bout of incompetence though!

oil refineries will stop producing if any of the products it produces are backed up.

you can do more cracking to petroleum if you have a use for petroleum.

another option is to turn the light into solid fuel which you will need for rockets anyway.
good for trains and steam engine too.

if you need more heavy oil for lube, and don't mind getting less light oil & petroleum you can switch to standard refining.
standard nets 30H 30L 40P vs advanced 10H 45L 55P. just don't forget to deconstruct the water input!

impetus maximus wrote:oil refineries will stop producing if any of the products it produces are backed up.

you can do more cracking to petroleum if you have a use for petroleum.

another option is to turn the light into solid fuel which you will need for rockets anyway.
good for trains and steam engine too.

if you need more heavy oil for lube, and don't mind getting less light oil & petroleum you can switch to standard refining.
standard nets 30H 30L 40P vs advanced 10H 45L 55P. just don't forget to deconstruct the water input!

There is no need to deconstruct the water input if switching back to standard, the Oil refinery will simply not accept the water while the recipe is not set to Advanced oil processing.

I find the Bottleneck mod to be a great help in situations like this (i.e., half the time I'm playing). Simple indicators show you what is stopping your machines from running, or if they're running normally.

https://mods.factorio.com/mods/trold/Bottleneck

Use circuit controlled pumps. Connect the Lubricant tanks together. Then connect to two pumps. One only pumps when you've got enough lubricant, and then flip the condition so the other pump only runs when the lube is below the amount you want. Should allow the system to run and keep you in both options.